EMPIRES children: THE PEOPLE OF TZINTZUNTZAN FOSTER 



17 



afternoon, making use of paintings represent- 

 ing the Ten Commandments, the Seven Sacra- 

 m.ents, and so forth, to illustrate their words. 

 They concentrated their efforts especially on 

 children, whom they found to be more receptive 

 and to learn more easily. 



After baptism, one of the first preoccupations 

 of the friars was to eliminate polygyny, which 

 was done by asking each man which wife he 

 preferred, and forbidding him henceforth to 

 live with the others. In this first year, 1526, no 

 other churches were established, but the friars 

 frequently visited the other lake towns in canoes 



— Patzcuaro, Erongaricuaro, San Andres Tzi- 

 rondaro, San Jeronimo Purenchecuaro, San- 

 ta Fe, and Cucupao (Quiroga). Subsequently 



— and again the dates are not certain — con- 

 vents were founded in Patzcuaro, Acambaro, 

 Zinapecuaro, Uruapan, Tarecuaro, and many 

 other towns in the sierra. Moreno, the biogra- 

 pher of Don Vasco, says that upon his arrival 

 only the convent of Tzintzuntzan existed, while 

 Beaumont vigorously defends the thesis that 

 others were erected before his arrival. 



Whatever the truth, the orderly conversion 

 and settling of Michoacan received a rude jolt 

 and setback with the arrival of Nufio de Guz- 

 man. Guzman had been named president of the 

 first audiencia by the court of Charles V to 

 replace Cortes, and by abuse of his high position 

 he brought a reign of terror perhaps never 

 equaled in the New World. Eventually Bishop 

 Zumarraga excommunicated the entire audien- 

 cia, consisting of president and four oidores, 

 and, anticipating his replacement by a new 

 audiencia (that of Bishop Ramirez de Fuen- 

 leal), toward the close of 1530 Guzman set off 

 with an army to raid and plunder in Michoacan 

 and Jalisco. Terrified, the king sent him pre- 

 sents of gold and silver, as well as several 

 thousand men to serve in his army. Unsatisfied, 

 Guzman demanded more and more gold, which 

 the king was patently unable to supply, since 

 Olid had thoroughly sacked the kingdom. En- 

 raged, Guzman accused him of treason, tortured 

 him, sentenced him to death, and so, in 1530, 

 in company with several important nobles the 

 unfortunate Tangaxoan was burned at the stake. 

 Having undone the good work of the first friars, 

 Guzman continued his conquests on into the 

 modern State of Jalisco, founding cities, estab- 



lishing encomiendas, and burning and slaugh- 

 tering as he went. 



Meanwhile, unbeknown to the Tarascans, a 

 better day was dawning for the people of Mi- 

 choacan. At this time Michoacan was in a state 

 of turmoil. The first favorable impressions of 

 the Indians toward the Spaniards had been 

 destroyed completely by the terrorization of 

 Guzman. Towns were depopulated, people lived 

 in the hills, and what little Christianity had 

 been learned was now forgotten. Likewise, the 

 newly appointed nobles, in carpetbag style, 

 were victimizing all persons under their control. 

 In the words of Moreno, at this time the Taras- 

 cans were living — 



in the most lamentable state: the character of bap- 

 tism, which was the only claim they had on Chris- 

 tianity, only served to aggravate the enormities which 

 they had formerly practiced, and which even now 

 they had not abandoned. Although secretly, they still 

 followed the cult of their false gods. They had not 

 abandoned polygyny, and some even had 10 and others 

 15 women; drunkeness was frequent; robbery and 

 murder of the Spaniards was the means by which 

 they lived. It is true that the apostolic friars had 

 worked with this problem. . . they preached to them 

 and even castigated their rebelliousness with whips; 

 but all in vain, because as the height of everything, 

 and to eliminate at the root the hope of remedy, they 

 had fled to the hills where they lived a life like that 

 of wild beasts [Aguayo, 1938, p. 47]. 



To study the situation, Don Vasco de Qui- 

 roga was named visitador and sent to Michoacan 

 where he met Don Pedro Cuirananguari, gov- 

 ernor of Tzintzuntzan, and had the principal 

 people of the pueblo assembled. His words, 

 subsequently repeated in other parts of the 

 Slate, seem to have been more a reproach for 

 having deserted Christianity than the apology 

 which might have seemed due. 



Don Vasco de Quiroga, already 60 years old, 

 had set sail for New Spain in 1530, appointed 

 oidor of the second audiencia, headed by Fuen- 

 leal. Schooled in law and science, he was well 

 aware of the intellectual developments which 

 were taking place outside of Spain, of the dawn 

 of a new period of humanitarianism, human 

 rights, and free inquiry. A reformer by nature, 

 he had definite ideas as to what should be done 

 to help the Indians, and with his position and 

 salary, first as oidor and later as bishop of Mi- 

 choacan, he was in a position to put them into 

 effect. 



